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You just do an IC swap on the display for example to bypass that. There are tools to read original screen and camera data, store it, and reprogram the new part.

Most parts remain reusable.

Everyone is aware of cheap storage upgrades for iPhone and Mac via NAND upgrades. These snatches are a good source of NANDs.

Exactly, these parts end up in shops that can separate PCBs and swap and program BGA chips. They just remove and replace the security ICs.
 
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Apparently these thieves are getting smarter. They would spy on someone using their iPhone to try and obtain the passcode.

Once they snatched it, they unlock with passcode and change the apple id password. If they are successful with that, they can sign out and have an unlocked iPhone.

To prevent this loophole, you have to turn ON stolen device protection.

 
Apparently these thieves are getting smarter. They would spy on someone using their iPhone to try and obtain the passcode.

Once they snatched it, they unlock with passcode and change the apple id password. If they are successful with that, they can sign out and have an unlocked iPhone.

To prevent this loophole, you have to turn ON stolen device protection.


...and don't store your Apple account password in the Passwords app!

Again, I'm asking Apple to let the user set a separate and different passcode for the Passwords app!
 
Must be crazy to track and see your phone making that journey across the world.

My iPhone is constantly wandering off but I took action and confiscated its passport. Not going to Hong Kong any time soon. 😆

But on a serious note our phones are very personal items and even if it’s all backed up it mustn’t be a nice experience at all to have it taken and then have to get a replacement.
Also some phones could’ve traveled more than the owners 🤣🤣🤣
 
I was just thinking the other day it might be time for me to drop AppleCare+ on my iPhone 15 Pro Max, but reading this article, I'll plan to keep it for a while. In the past, I've kept my iPhone theft (and accident) insurance until the upgrade period begins. I plan to keep this one a bit longer.
 
I believe they can only sell older iPhones for parts, like older than iPhone 12? As you need an apple genuine service software to approve replaced parts since iPhone 13 I think.
 
I believe they can only sell older iPhones for parts, like older than iPhone 12? As you need an apple genuine service software to approve replaced parts since iPhone 13 I think.

People buying used iPhones from stalls don't care if has genuine parts or not, and there are shops in Hong Kong and China that can remove and reprogram the security chips along with being able to remove and reuse RAM, SSD, cell modem chips and the like. Even if they won't show as genuine afterwards, they are still Apple parts and still work.

For an example, here is a guy who built a 13 Pro entirely from AliExpress parts.


Upgrading the SSD chips on an iPhone 16 from 128gb to 512gb. Thiis is a super professional video, but you can have it done for much cheaper at stalls.

 
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I've been considering getting one of those cases that allow you to attach a strap when I travel to at least minimize getting my phone snatched while in my hand. Maybe a long enough tether to attach to your belt or some attachment point to your bag. The bag may even be one of those fancy theft resistant bags.
 
Mine was snatched and kept in a London dwelling for a couple of days - the police couldn't just go and knock on the door apparently, even though my Find My showed it was there. To be fair, the police here in the London were pretty useless throughout. Gave me a crime reference number, told me its happening a lot, and that was it.

2 weeks or so later I tracked it back to Shenzhen.
Luckily I had Applecare+ so the handset was replaced (Apple and the insurer were great BTW). I still have the old handset locked in my Find My - not sure whether to remove it or not as its probably been stripped by now.....
I would leave it in Find My for as long as possible (until you hit a device limit or something), just on the off chance that it makes a criminals' life a tiny bit harder/ less profitable.
 
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Of the devices that I’ve lost only one has ever showed up. I lost an iPhone 3G at hunters point my fault for leaving it on a desk and getting stuck in an elevator. This was before device lock but I still saw it walking down market in sf until it went poof. An Apple Watch stolen and it never appeared and finally this is the kicker my iPad Pro. I left it on an Alaska airlines flight. Contacted the airlines and no one has seen it. On find my it was in terminal c at the corner and it would show there. Alaska didn’t find it and eventually the battery and my patience ran out about three months after loosing it I get a notification that it’s in Ukraine. Hopefully doing good work. Still locked but that’s the last I ever saw of it. IMG_1220.png
 
Some iPhones stolen here in Brazil are also traveling to China. A friend of mine has been receiving messages, even messages and emails (with logos and titles similar to Apple's) asking, sending tutorials, and threatening to remove the iPhone from FindMy.
 
The only time it almost happened to me was when I was studying in Barcelona in 2012. I remember everyone made fun of me for being too "germanized" for tying my phone case to by belt and one night we were out and suddenly I feel something pulling on my belt and I turn around and a lady was holding onto my phone but couldn't get it loose. Naturally I slapped her hand and shouted Pendeja at her. I literally didn't feel her taking it out of my pants pocket, just like in the movies.

Been careful travelling ever since
Pick pocketing is very common in Barcelona.
 
I think Samsung was onto something with the galaxy note 7. What they wanted to do was a security feature where the phone will physically self destruct if stolen, but I guess they had way too many false positive situations.

I guess another benefit of US iPhones going ESIM only is they are now practically worthless as stolen devices to the rest of the world, especially in China, where there is no ESIM.
 
my friend's brand new, fully loaded iPad Pro went from Denver Airport (Southwest flight) > west of airport > Africa.
 
Mine was snatched and kept in a London dwelling for a couple of days - the police couldn't just go and knock on the door apparently, even though my Find My showed it was there. To be fair, the police here in the London were pretty useless throughout. Gave me a crime reference number, told me its happening a lot, and that was it.

2 weeks or so later I tracked it back to Shenzhen.
Luckily I had Applecare+ so the handset was replaced (Apple and the insurer were great BTW). I still have the old handset locked in my Find My - not sure whether to remove it or not as its probably been stripped by now.....
I prefer the texas way of recovering the phone
 
This is a transnational crime, and the saddest part is that law enforcement know where most stolen devices end up, yet they do nothing about it. For example, in Bogotá, Colombia, everyone knows the exact location where thieves resell the phones they either pickpocket or rob at gunpoint, but the police, either complicit or not, don’t go after them.

When I was studying my master’s in Brussels, I had a small flat in Anderlecht. Everyone kept asking me if that place was as dangerous as everyone thought, and it really wasn’t. However, Anderlecht did have a bad reputation for being the place where every stolen phone in Western Europe ended up. Despite this, I loved my time there.
 
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...This is meant to be a developed country, proud of its technology, with CCTV on every lamp post, yet the police might as well be using binoculars and guesswork. People have given up.
CCTV is not there to keep citizens safe, but to spy on them. As a former Londoner I couldn't get out of that dystopian nightmare of a city (and country) fast enough.
 
My cousin’s iPhone was stolen in a bar in Miami and also ended up there. Seems like it’s a well-organised group that operates around the globe.
 
It is baffling. This is meant to be a developed country, proud of its technology, with CCTV on every lamp post, yet the police might as well be using binoculars and guesswork. People have given up.

It's a matter of priorities for resources. The police have only so many resources to put to chasing criminals, and there are other much more serious crimes that need to be investigated. Sad, but life.

Naturally I slapped her hand and shouted Pendeja at her.

She's lucky. One of the places I live she'd likely have gotten a gun pulled on her and if she persisted, shot.

I've been considering getting one of those cases that allow you to attach a strap when I travel to at least minimize getting my phone snatched while in my hand. Maybe a long enough tether to attach to your belt or some attachment point to your bag. The bag may even be one of those fancy theft resistant bags.

I'd get a neck tether and tuck it into your shirt when not using it.

I prefer the texas way of recovering the phone

Col. Colt is one powerful negotiator...
 
I only know Hong Kong from John Woo movies so I imagine that the battle between cops and iPhones blackmarket operators is corrupt on both sides and that the conflict is in slow-motion, is beautiful, and makes the case for the complexity of relationships being subsumed in a cold and unfeeling corporate world. Also flying doves.
 
Ah, so that’s why sales have slumped 😁
Actually the opposite.
Apple, Samsung, and others LOVE when phones are stolen or purchased fraudulently.
OEM's get credit for devices sold, not activated, nor currently active.
 
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